An emotional President Obama discusses the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school on Friday. / Charles Dharapak, AP

by By Bill Goodykoontz, Gannett Chief Film Critic

by By Bill Goodykoontz, Gannett Chief Film Critic

Those of us in the media crank the machinery into action when a news story like the shooting in Newtown, Conn., happens. We report the facts, which in this case are horrific beyond comprehension. We update those facts. Some of us are tasked with taking a step back to try to add some perspective, to try to make some kind of sense of it all within a larger context.

That is not going to happen.

Because there is no way to make sense of this. There is no way to wrap your head around children â?? CHILDREN â?? gunned down in what is supposed to be a safe place, a haven. All we can do instead is watch in horror as the news gets worse and worse.

The media, for the most part, acquitted itself with some sense of restraint early on. Yes, in an age of social media with instant reporting, some of the numbers can be a little fuzzy. The suspected shooter was first misidentified in many outlets, but this seemed to be the result of bad information from law-enforcement sources.

That said, there are no bonus points for getting a story first if it's wrong, particularly when you're identifying a man suspected of one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. These are incredibly difficult stories to report. That's not an excuse. It's a reason to be all the more careful to get your facts straight before you report them.

Another problem, an ongoing one, involved the interviewing of some of the surviving children. These kids are already far too much a part of this story. Leave them alone. Let them at least try to begin to heal before you stick a microphone in their face.

What's so terrible about this story is that every confirmation, every update of the dead, is worse than the rumors. It gets worse and worse, and it started out as bad as one could imagine.

Another shooting. More dead. Like many people, I first got details through Twitter. And frankly, when I saw a tweet that said that CNN was covering a shooting in Connecticut, my first response was simply, "Again?" They have become that common. And yet, even in that jaded atmosphere, as details started to trickle in, this was astonishing.

Social media immediately delved into the gun-control debate. The prevailing sense among those who support some sort of sensible gun control was this, echoed by many: If now is not the time to talk about gun control, when is? When is the appropriate time?

Gun control is another topic that falls in line with the division felt everywhere in our country. The mere mention that there should be some regulation of guns is met with a knee-jerk reaction, that making it harder to get guns will only make the world, or our at least our corner of it, more dangerous.

Save it.

Again: children. CHILDREN. I have four kids; all were in school when news of the shooting broke. As I write this, I'm also trying to figure out what to tell them when I pick them up from school. How do you explain the unexplainable? What can anyone possibly say to make any kind of sense of it?

Nothing. Because it makes no sense at all.

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Bill Goodykoontz of The Arizona Republic is the chief film critic for Gannett. Read his blog at goodyblog.azcentral.com. For movie stories, trailers and more go to movies.azcentral.com. Twitter: goodyk.